Let them come and show us how they do it. This is what Josep Maria Recasens, president of Renault Spain, asked on Wednesday of the Chinese car brands that are gaining ground by leaps and bounds in Europe. “Here (in Europe) you can’t come and build four plates with wheels and seats with little added value. What we have to do is engage them to teach us, to provide products with added value. We didn’t do this when we went to China, they shouldn’t do it when they come to Europe”, said the manager, who is also president of the national automotive association Anfac, in an event organized by The automotive grandstand.
Recasens’ words are due to the fact that when producers from the Old Continent wanted to establish themselves in China, the government of that country imposed conditions that forced them to transfer knowledge to local Chinese companies, through joint venturesand generate quality local employment.
“We have opened up the entire field and they are entering from all sides, we need to bring order at a European level. A few years ago, when we wanted to go to China, they told us: ‘come in, but with these characteristics’. The tariffs are nothing more than equalizing what is not fair, to rebalance the balance”, explained the highest national representative of the car manufacturers, who also took the opportunity to underline the importance of the general plan for the automobile, the Auto Plan 2030, which the Government has prepared by Anfac and is expected to be published by the end of the year.
“The sector exists and is alive, but it is based on an ecosystem of combustion engines. This technology is old world, I don’t know if it will disappear, but there is superior technology from the point of view of competitiveness, scalability and performance. The only growth vector is the electric vehicle. The combustion car will sell less and, for everything we have built around it, we must get to work to put it at the service of the dominant technology of the future. This is not politics, it is about technology,” he said Recasens, who asked that the 2030 Car Plan have a budget to avoid it becoming a simple “brochure”.
Furthermore, Recasens supported the continuity of aid for electric cars. This medium announced that the Government is working on a new program other than Moves, which will separate the autonomous communities from management and for which the Executive is preparing a specific budget item, although this will not be fueled by the tax change requested by the sector.
The event was also attended by the new CEO of Seat and Cupra, Markus Haupt, who underlined how one of the biggest challenges in the sector is the profit margins of electric cars, especially in the smaller segments. The manager underlined that the Martorell plant (Barcelona) will assemble the Volkswagen group’s first electric vehicle for a price of around 25,000 euros, the Cupra Raval, which will be marketed in March. The Skoda Epiq and the Volkswagen ID will follow in the following months. Cross and identity card. Polo, everyone produced in Spain. For Volkswagens under 20,000 euros we will have to wait until at least 2027.
